Harrison Wells is a fictional scientist and one of the main characters from the 2014 live-action superhero fantasy series The Flash. Played by actor Tom Cavanagh, he was introduced in the pilot episode of the series.

Contents

The true nature of Harrison Wells was one that was steeped in mystery. On the surface, he appeared as a genuine benefactor of mankind, who only wanted to offer his scientific knowledge for the good of society. Beneath this charade however, lied Wells' true motives, which were known to no one save him. Gifted with knowledge of the future, Harrison committed himself towards insuring that events would play out so that a young man named Barry Allen would be physiologically transformed into the super-fast metahuman that men know as the Flash. To this end, he used his resources to secure himself a high-level position at S.T.A.R. Labs. Over the span of a decade, Wells developed a particle accelerator, which he claimed would be his gift and his legacy to mankind. On the night the accelerator was activated however, the device overloaded, and an explosion erupted, creating a wave of energy that spread out across Central City. This energy wave was responsible for jump-starting the metahuman gene in various individuals, including Barry Allen, as well as one of his own physicists, Ronnie Raymond.

Harrison pretended to suffer his own personal injuries from the particle accelerator explosion as well. His own assistants, Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow believed that he had been crippled in the accident, but in truth, he could walk perfectly fine. The incident at S.T.A.R. Labs destroyed Harrison's reputation among the community, and the laboratory lost many of its government contracts. Harrison kept the Central City laboratory going with his own personal funds, which were now devoted completely towards studying and assisting Barry Allen in his career as the Flash. Wells even turned part of S.T.A.R. Labs into a containment unit designed to house super-powered criminals such as the Mist and Girder.

Harrison Wells was a scientist who hailed from a parallel world dubbed Earth-2. His counterpart from the core reality of Earth-1 was murdered by a futuristic speedster named Eobard Thawne, who assumed his form and took his place in that reality until he was removed from the timestream by the actions of his own ancestor, Eddie Thawne. The Earth-2 version of Harrison Wells was a well-respected member of the scientific community in his reality and had a daughter named Jesse. An evil speedster named Hunter Zolomon, aka "Zoom", abducted Jesse as a means of exerting control over Wells.

Harrison Wells found a breach between the two realities and came to Earth-1 where he met Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow. Because the fake Harrison Wells of their reality had such a negative effect on their lives, the group found it extremely difficult to trust this version of Wells, whom Cisco took to calling "Harry". Wells' abrasive and bitter temperament did little to endear him to the group, but they knew that his scientific expertise was invaluable and they needed him to help repair the breaches between the worlds and stop Zoom, who had invaded their world as well.